acereject

Simon was employed as an RCA A&R guy the whole time that Kylie was releasing records on Deconstruction. RCA and DeConstruction were both BMG labels. The BMG and Sony merger only happened in 2004, with Sony closing BMG in 2008 (The modern BMG - that Kylie releases her records through - is a new label company set up by the original owners who kept the name rights but is not the same entity). He probably wasn't the only person in the biz who were skeptical that Kylie could make a comeback. Also the trade press is not the same as "the press". Nobody outside of the music industry knew who Simon Cowell was in June 2000. I'm sure he's easily gauded into making negative comments about his competition. I find what you wrote above to be quite fanciful. I don't particularly like Simon much myself, but I don't really think he has any bad will towards Kylie - for one, he's signed off on booking her for X Factor live shows enough times.

Light Years was up against Madonna's Music, and then later X was fighting the X Factor publicity machine with Leona Lewis, Shayne Ward and Westlife all ahead.